In this live, 1982 performance by the legendary Bolshoi Ballet, prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya portrays both the symbolic seagull and Nina, the catalyst for the work’s tragic denouement. This brilliant adaptation of the Chekhov play, with music by Rodion Shchedrin, was also choreographed by Plisetskaya, who appears to soar in the air with arms undulating like the wings of a great bird. Her Nina is a complex amalgam of innocence and desire, and Alexander Bogatyrev as an anguished Konstantin, Lyudmila Butzkova as Arkadina, and Boris Efimov as Trigorin triumph as well.

"Plisetskaya explains in the 30-minute bonus that there is no similarity to her swan arms, which were an extraordinary feature of her appearances in Swan Lake, or even The Dying Swan. The bonus includes the composer discussing his own work on the ballet, additionally stating that he and the choreographer—also his wife—worked in close harmony throughout the creation."—Fanfare